Feature Stories
We’ve got something for everyone here in Features — people stories, off-the-beaten-path kind of stories, science-in-action sagas. Take your pick!
Practice makes imperfect
With a prestigious prize from the National Science Foundation, MagLab chemist Yan-Yan Hu hopes to boost the performance of materials by engineering them with the best possible flaws.
Spinning electrons into technology gold
With a prestigious prize from the National Science Foundation, MagLab physicist Christianne Beekman will do "atomic-level engineering" on ultra-thin materials with promising properties.
Crossing a Mack truck with a Ferrari
Two MagLab teams tried marrying vastly different technologies to build a new type of magnet: the Series Connected Hybrid. Decades later, has the oddball pairing panned out?
Hurricane Season at the MagLab
Located in a region prone to hurricanes, the National MagLab is ready to weather any storm.
Getting to the bottom of Deepwater Horizon’s impact
Thanks to the MagLab’s expertise and unique instruments, a geochemist finds a treasure trove of oil-spill data buried beneath the sea.
BiSCCO breakthrough
MagLab experts fine-tuned a furnace for pressure-cooking a novel superconducting magnet. Now they're about to build its big brother.
"SnackChat" builds community at the MagLab
Monthly gatherings prepare employees for the dreaded awkward elevator ride.
Rooting for Team Science
From physics to chemistry to biology, science isn’t for loners anymore. It takes a squad to make progress in an increasingly interdisciplinary world.
Ryan Rodgers makes it happen
With determination, confidence and a top-notch team, this MagLab chemist exposed the complex secrets of crude oil, busting open a vast, new field.
CellBert named lab’s Most Valuable Bot
The MagLab’s DC Field Facility hit pay dirt with this hire, who works tirelessly to keep magnet cells spick and span.
Ten ways sports can make you a better scientist
Looking for something to give you the edge in your research? Join the team.
A match made in physics
Whether with people, particles or the forces of physics, love always finds a way.
Stuck with Neodymium?
Using high-field electromagnets, scientists explore a promising alternative to the increasingly expensive rare earth element widely used in motors.
Beating the heat treatment problem
Looking for ways to make better superconductors for the next-generation particle accelerators, a young scientist homed in on how they were heat-treated. He was getting warmer.
Intro to high-temperature superconductors
At the National MagLab and other labs across the globe, the race to discover ever-warmer superconductors is heating up. Find out what these materials are, what they’re good for and why this field is red hot.
Tapping into the Topological Promise
At the National MagLab, scientists have been experimenting for years on materials first dreamed up by the newest physics Nobel laureates decades ago.
MagLab measures a megabeast
When documentary filmmakers needed to know the bite force of a prehistoric megabeast, who did they turn to? The National MagLab.
Seeing the future through crystals
Deep in their beautiful lattices, crystals hold secrets about the future of technology and science. Ryan Baumbach aims to find them.
Science and cycling
During the sport's biggest month of the year, MagLab staffers talk about how biking enhances their life — and their science.
Small wonders
Science in a tight space requires ingenuity, tenacity and a really good pair of tweezers.